In a match in which only the weather caused them any discomfort, Rangers made it seem that Aberdeen's status as the third team in the table had been gained under false pretences.

Subdued from the start and overrun throughout, Jimmy Calderwood's wretched side offered the resistance of lambs to the marauding Kris Boyd, whose first-half hat-trick gave Walter Smith's revitalised Rangers a three-goal advantage that was never likely to be challenged.

Whatever level of expectation or optimism Aberdeen bring to Ibrox, it tends to be easily quelled, the Pittodrie side having not won a league match at the great stadium since 1991. On this latest visit, their prospects of ending the protracted run of failure were dimmed almost to the point of being snuffed out the moment Boyd scored the first of his goals.

The impression that it would be another unproductive trip to Glasgow for Calderwood's squad did not form so much from the evidence of those opening minutes as it did from their inability to handle the Old Firm throughout the season. Despite otherwise worthy endeavours that took them into a position from which they could claim to be challengers for the second place in next season's Champions League, they had lost all five of their previous matches against Celtic and Rangers. These included jousts with the latter at a time of the season when, under Paul Le Guen, they were at their lowest ebb.

The visitors' attempts at recovery from that first setback were quite pathetic, especially in defence. Given the opportunities, the prolific Boyd needs no help from anyone to add to his impressive total, but he must have thought on this occasion that his supposed challengers had turned into comrades.

For the first of his goals, the Rangers striker had been initially denied a shooting chance by close marking, forced to play the ball out to Nacho Novo. The Spaniard touched it on to Alan Hutton, whose weak cross from the right appeared incapable of troubling the tall Aberdeen defenders. In fact, Boyd was the only one in position when it arrived and he required only a glancing header to send it past Jamie Langfield from six yards.

His second firmed up the suspicion that Aberdeen's defending was actually deteriorating. This time, Charlie Adam's cross from the left was deflected into the goalmouth, missed by every red shirt in the vicinity and turned over the line by the left foot of the unmarked Boyd.

Andrew Considine turned the improbable into actuality with his demonstration of appalling defending at the third. Barry Ferguson tried to supply Hutton on the right, but the Aberdeen defender was an odds-on chance to make the interception. His challenge, however, was so weak that the Rangers full-back emerged with the ball, cut it back to Boyd and watched his team-mate hit a powerful right-foot drive past Langfield from eight yards.

It was a sense of desperation that prompted Calderwood to remove the midfielder Chris Clark and replace him with Zander Diamond, the substitute to join Russell Anderson and Considine in a three-man defence.

This had the initial effect of releasing Michael Hart and the pacy Richard Foster into areas farther forward, but did not alter the overall image of Aberdeen as a blunt instrument. With the strikers, Lee Miller and Steve Lovell, marginalised, the veteran Craig Brewster left the bench to replace Lovell in the 63rd minute.

Brewster, 40, at least managed to produce Aberdeen's first on-target attempt, a header from a cross from the right that Allan McGregor held comfortably under the crossbar.

Considine's wretched day seemed to be complete when he keeled over in trying to make a challenge, apparently having overstretched himself. He recovered to continue, but only the indulgence of referee Mike McCurry saved the big defender from the red card that should have deepened his misery. Having been cautioned in the first half, Considine deserved a second yellow for his tackle on Hutton near the finish.